Task 7.1 Monitoring the bison’s population size, social structure, population dynamics, genetic diversity and health

Within this task the team will regularly monitor estimated population size and population structure, genetic diversity, estimated number of calves, continuous counts of bison deaths, number, size and social structure of separate bison herds and health status of the newly reintroduced animal and free-roaming herds. Methods used include genetic spatial capture–recapture sampling, pellet count, direct observations and camera-trapping.

Deliverable:

• Report on the size, genetics, and health of the Tarcu bison population.
• Report on Bison ecology.

Task 7.2 Monitoring the bison’s movement, habitat use and home range

This task will monitor estimated bison ranges, from telemetry (GPS collars), camera-trapping, field tracking and information gathered from local people. This data will be analysed jointly with other environmental and socio-economic data including assessments of bison effects on habitats and the landscape as well as monitoring of the area of different habitat using open-access satellite imagery.

Task 7.3 Monitoring bison damage to public and private property and the effectiveness of coexistence interventions

The data collected under in this task will be used to track if the number of bison incidents, interventions and damage rates decreases according to implementations and measures.

Task 7.4 Monitoring and assessing the socio-economic benefits of bison’s comeback

The monitoring of the socio-economic and cultural impacts and benefits will be undertaken in both quantitative and qualitative assessments from own data and surveys.

Deliverable:

• Report on the socio-economic impacts of the bison’s comeback, including tourism

Task 7.5 Monitoring the project’s communication impact

In addition to data on local perceptions of the project collected in the previous task, we will monitor communication impact with available online data about media outreach, social media results and webpage visitors to produce yearly reports to adjust plans for best impact.

Deliverables:

• Yearly reports on media outreach, social media results and webpage visitors

Task 7.6 Monitoring the project’s implementation and key-performance indicators

Core Coordination Team will make sure that the project is developed in line with what is foreseen in the proposal and according to the optimal scientific and methodological criteria.

Deliverable:

Extract of the project data from the LIFE KPI webtool